Judge: No injunction for Mentor hotel in Route 20 widening project

Plans are progressing on a road widening project along Route 20 between Route 615 and Murray Avenue in Mentor.
News-Herald File

The owner of a Mentor hotel has been denied an injunction that would have stopped the city from taking private property to widen Route 20 for traffic relief.

Lake County Common Pleas Judge Vincent A. Culotta recently granted the city of Mentor’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Gates Mills-based Lawnfield Properties LLC, which operates under the name Best Western Plus Lawnfield Inn Suites.

Hotel officials wanted Culotta to stop the city from taking the property until Lawnfield obtained a new appraisal accounting for all the damages the business will incur as a result of the widening.

Although Culotta ruled the project may go forward, he determined hotel officials still have the right to challenge the question of compensation for the property.

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However, Culotta found that Probate Court — not Common Pleas — was the proper venue for the compensation issue.

Mentor Law Director Richard A. Hennig said he was pleased with the judge’s decision.

“The plaintiff was trying to put the city over a barrel by getting a restraining order,” Hennig said. “I think it’s a hard-nose way to do business: ‘We’re going to stop this project, unless you pay us more money.’ If the judge would have ordered an injunction, we would have had to tell the contractor to demobilize. That would have exposed the city to a longer period of delay damages, and the motoring public would have been exposed to a longer period of danger.”

Last December, the city asked Probate Judge Mark Bartolotta to allow Mentor to take a portion of the hotel property at 8434 Mentor Ave. for public use with proper payment of compensation.

In April, Lawnfield asked Culotta to issue an injunction to stop proceedings in Lake County Probate Court from going forward.

The city’s notice of intent included a “good faith offer” of $25,055 to compensate the business, which also houses Skye Bistro, an upscale casual dining restaurant.

Lawnfield attorney James Aveni previously argued the appraiser’s report did not address various damages the project would cause the hotel and restaurant.

“What irritated me is (Lawnfield) already had an existing remedy available to them in Judge Bartolotta’s court,” Hennig added. “What purpose do you have trying to get an injunction against this road widening project when you can already go to Probate Court? We shouldn’t have to be put to this kind of extreme disadvantage of the threat of losing public money to gain a monetary advantage. The project can now go forward without worry of a court injunction.”